Brown hails troops' efforts on Afghan trip

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown told British troops today that by fighting the Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan they are preventing terror attacks back home.

During a visit to the main British military base in the southern province of Helmand, Brown called the troops "heroes".

"What you are doing is part of an incredibly important process of creating not only a terrorist-free Afghanistan, but an Afghanistan where there will be democracy and people will have a stake in the future for the long term," Brown said.

"You know that by what you are doing here you prevent terrorism coming to the streets of Britain."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also made a surprise visit to Baghdad.